Robert Youngblood

Robert Youngblood
Player information
Full name	Robert Bernard Youngblood
birthday	31st March 1969 (age 51)
place of birth	Tuskegee, Alabama, United States
size	201 cm
position	Power forward
college	Southern
Club information
society	Essex Leopards
league	English Basketball League
Jersey number	12
Clubs as active
1987–1991 Southern Jaguars ( NCAA ) 1991–1992 Birmingham Bandits ( CBA ) 1992 South Georgia Blues (GBA) 1993 Centauros de Apure 1994 Benfica Lisbon 1994–1999 London Leopards 1999–2000 Brandt Hagen 2000 Leicester Riders 2000–2001 HERZOGtel Trier 2001– 2004 London Towers 2004–2010 Milton Keynes Lions 2010–2012 Leicester Riders 2012 Milton Keynes Lions Since 2012 Essex Leopards ( SpTr ) 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 0

Robert Bernard Youngblood (born March 31, 1969 in Tuskegee , Alabama ) is a native American basketball player and coach. After studying in his home country, Youngblood played as a professional for two years in " Minor Leagues " before moving to Europe in 1994, where he played in particular in the British Basketball League (BrBL) and became a citizen of the United Kingdom . As a result of the Bosman decision , he also played two seasons in the German basketball league and played in the British professional league until 2012, where he is listed in various record lists, including points and rebounds . 2012 was Youngblood player-manager of the Essex Leopards in the "English Basketball League" in which he had begun his playing career and with whom he had won in 1997 and 1998, the regular period of British professional league.

Career

After finishing school in 1987, Youngblood went to study at the African-American Southern University in Baton Rouge , Louisiana . There he played with Bobby Phills for the Jaguars college team in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association . The SWAC championship tournament was won twice in 1988 and 1989. In the national NCAA finals , however, they lost in the first round against the highly favored Wildcats of the University of Kentucky and a year later against the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . After winning the regular season of the SWAC again in 1990, they could not defend the title in the championship final tournament and thus, like a year later, not qualify for the finals. While Phills was then considered in the " Entry Draft " of the highest endowed professional league National Basketball Association , Youngblood was not selected by any NBA club.

After Youngblood had not been considered in the 1991 NBA Draft, the Wichita Falls Texans selected the “Minor League” CBA in first place in the “Entry Draft”. These gave him in exchange to the Birmingham Bandits; a season later he played together with Darrell Armstrong for the South Georgia Blues in the "Global Basketball Association" (GBA), whose operations were discontinued in December 1992 before the end of the season. After he had not been able to recommend himself for a contract in the NBA via the minor leagues and he had won the championship in Venezuela with Centauros from Apure in 1993 , he moved to Europe in 1994. Initially active in Portugal , he joined the Leopards in London in the 1994/95 season , which had taken over the license of the previously very successful Guildford Kings as a new " franchise " of the closed professional league British Basketball League (BrBL) .

With the Leopards, Youngblood could not directly continue the successful series of the previous Kings franchise from 1994 in the first two seasons , but was eliminated in the first round of the BrBL play-offs . In the 1996/97 season, however, they won the “National Cup” and, with the best record of all teams in the BBL, the “Championship” of the regular season. After they were eliminated in the League Cup against their local rivals London Towers , they also lost the final game of the play-offs by just one point against the Towers. In the following season you could only defend the title of regular time in 1998 and retired in the play-offs early in the first round. After the Leopards had managed in the 1998-99 season, only with a slightly positive record this season a place in the play-offs and was again eliminated there in the first round, he was parted in qualifying for the Leopards Korać Cup 1999/2000 against an Icelandic team.

After the elimination in the Korać Cup qualification in 1999, Youngblood, who now had British citizenship, moved to Germany for the 1999/2000 basketball Bundesliga to the first division club Brandt from Hagen . Via a qualifying round they reached the first round of the German play-offs, in which they were eliminated by series champions ALBA Berlin , as ninth in the table . Youngblood first returned to the British island and played for the Riders from Leicester at the beginning of the following season , before finally returning to Germany and playing for HERZOGtel from Trier . After you failed in the second qualifying round of the Korać Cup 2000/01 against Strasbourg IG , you missed in the basketball Bundesliga 2000/01 , which was played without a play-off qualification, as a table ninth among the play-offs The Championship.

For the 2001/02 season, Youngblood returned to London and now played for the Towers, which were also eligible to participate in the ULEB Euroleague , which had finally replaced the competitions of FIBA Europe as the highest European club competition . Here, however, they suffered very significant defeats in all 14 preliminary round games. In the championship of the BrBL it was enough with the second-best record of all teams of the BrBL to win the group in the "Southern Conference". In the play-offs they were eliminated in the semifinals against the Sheffield Sharks . Also in the following two seasons they were eliminated in the play-offs in the first round in 2003 and in the semi-finals in 2004 before the final. In 2004 Youngblood left the Towers and joined the Lions in Milton Keynes . With the Lions, Youngblood was initially not more successful, but was eliminated from titles in the BrBL in the first play-off round at the latest. In the 2007/08 season, however, you could get the first title win for the club by winning the BBL Cup 2008 and also reached the final game in the play-offs for the first time, which was lost to the Guildford Heat . Then, however, they stagnated at the previous level between missing the play-offs and elimination in the first round.

In November 2010, the 41-year-old Youngblood changed teams again and played again for the Leicester Riders. After being eliminated in 2011 as eighth in the first play-off round against eventual title winners Mersey Tigers , Youngblood began the following season 2011/12 again with the Riders, before returning to the Lions in early 2012. Youngblood then ended his playing career in the BrBL, in which he is led in 494 missions in the categories completed games, points, shot blocks and rebounds among the "top ten" in the BrBL record lists. While the Lions were relocating to London, Youngblood also moved there and in 2012 he became player-coach for the Leopards, who withdrew from the BrBL in 2003 and have since played in the English Basketball League (EBL). The double winner of the EBL Division One and the National Cup 2012 had initially successfully applied for admission to the closed professional league BrBL season 2013/14. During the 2012/13 season, however, there were disagreements in the consortium that had carried the application for membership, so that the Leopards will initially not return to the BrBL. In terms of sport, defending champion Leopards reached the semi-finals of the EBL championship play-offs in the 2012/13 season, which was lost to the eventual title winner Reading Rockets.

Web links

• Player statistics for Robert Youngblood - Statistics from the British Basketball League at SportingPulse.com ( English )
• YOUNGBLOOD, ROBERT - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB (English)
• Robert Youngblood (HERZOGtel Trier) - player profile on the statistics pages of the basketball leagues

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1991 CBA Draft. NBAHoopsOnline.com, accessed June 22, 2013 . 
2. ^ Robert Bernard Youngblood / Korac Cup 2001. FIBA Europe , accessed on June 22, 2013 (English, player profile with statistics). 
3. ↑ Basketball: Robert Youngblood back with Riders. (No longer available online.) Leicester Mercury , September 8, 2011, formerly original ; accessed on June 22, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
4. ^ Games Played - British Basketball League BBL. British Basketball League , accessed June 22, 2013 . 
5. ^ Points - British Basketball League BBL. British Basketball League , accessed June 22, 2013 . 
6. ↑ Blocked Shots - British Basketball League BBL. British Basketball League , accessed June 22, 2013 . 
7. ^ Total Rebounds - British Basketball League BBL. British Basketball League , accessed June 22, 2013 .